A new release for 2016 is this no-age statement single malt from Tamnavulin. Certain reports online suggest this is the first release from the distillery for about 20 years but in 2015 I bought a 12-year-old that first appeared in 2005 (according to Whiskybase). But the distillery was mothballed between 1995 and 2007. I suppose it’s possible that the distillery owners released a 12yo in 2005 from whisky distilled in 1993, even if the distillery hadn’t officially been reopened. Apparently in 2000 the staff at nearby Tomintoul spent 6 weeks in Tamnavulin distilling 400,000 litres of spirit just to keep stock ticking over. So ‘mothballed’ certainly doesn’t always mean ‘inactive’.

Although 81/100 from two votes on Whiskybase may sound good comments on the Malt Maniacs Facebook page have been quite critical. It will be interesting to see where the Double Cask’s score levels out after 20+ ratings.

(Update Oct 2017): Well there’s a surprise. After 27 votes on Whiskybase the average score has moved up to nearly 82/100, which is a very good mark. The Whisky Bible 2018 has arrived and Jim Murray gave the ‘Double Cask’ a fantastic 87.5/100, which classifies the malt as ‘very good to excellent whisky definitely worth buying’.

Scoring 80/100 from Andy of Malt Box is quite a reasonable score. Here is his review on You Tube (November 2016):

This 12-year-old whisky is a distillery release from Tamnavulin, which was founded in 1966, closed in 1995 and reopened again in 2007. But that’s only 8 years ago, so where does the 12 years come from? Apparently the staff of neighbouring Tomintoul distillery went into Tamnavulin in 2000 and made 400,000 litres of new spirit to keep the stock ticking over. How kind of them! I’m assuming the whisky in my bottle is from 2000, rather than older stock from pre 1995.

There aren’t many bottlings produced of Tamnavulin, with only 4 listed in the Whisky Bible 2015, of which the youngest is a 21yo. This 12yo is the principal distillery release, which scores a modest 77/100 on Whiskybase. One voter says of the taste “it’s rather weak, grassy, sugar free lemonade and green tea.” And summarises with “it’s not great but it’s not bad either……I find it quite interesting and need another one.”

Tamnavulin whisky might be rare in comparison to most distilleries but this 12yo certainly isn’t an investment. Sadly the quality isn’t good enough for that but, as an example of what the distillery can produce, it should be an acceptable sipper.